Fire escape



.May'22,1923. I 4, 55,928

v C. F- MORRILL FIRE ESCAPE Filed April 19. 1918- s Sheets- Sheet 1 EngJ.

May 22, 1923.

I 1,455,928 .c. F. MORRILL FIRE ESCAPE Filed April '19, 1918 ssheets-snai MKM' w May 22, 1923.

c. F. MORRILL FIRE ESCAPE I Filed April 19, 1918 a Sheets-Shut 5 45 'I'E8 J /Q l l I l I I l l l 111m? w emaw c Patented May 22, teas.

entree FIRE ESCAPE.

Application filed April 19, 1918. Serial No. 229,548.

To all whom it may concern." Be it known that I, CHARm-Is l MonniLL,citizen oi? the United States. residing at Boston, in the countyoiSu'tloll; and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and usefulImprovements in vFire Escapes, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to a lire escape com prising a vertical series ortier of horizontal balconies projecting from a building, and accessiblethrough windows or other openings in the building wall, and stairwayshinged to the balconies in suitable relation. to openings constitutingpassage-ways through the balcony floors, the organization being); suchthat the stairways, when not required for use, are arranged horizontallyin, or slightly under, the balcony floors, and releasably confined, sothat their swinginends may be liberated to permit each stairway toswing); downward, to permit persons to pass from a balcony to anotherbelow it, and from the lowest balcony to the pavement,

Among the chief objects of the invention are the followin First, toprovide a stairway having rigid upstanding hand rails at its oppositelongitudinal edges extending substantially the enire length of thestairway.

Second, to enable a portion of the balcony floor to serve a landing atthe foot of a stairway hinged to the next upper balcony, and to receiveportionsoili the fixed hand rails or" the accompanying stairway when thelatter is raised, a portion of the stairway being overlapped by saidlanding, andportions of the hand rails projecting through slots in thelanding, when the stairway is raised, so that the hand rails aresuitably housed, and the inner one of said hand rails is adapted toserve as a barrier toprevent passage between said landing and anadjacent portion of the balcony floor.

Third, to provide means for releasably securing the stairway in itsraised position in-- eluding; a swinging grate controlling access to thehead of the stairway, and acting, when opened by a person passing to thestairway, to release the stairway and permit its descent.

Fourth. to provide means operable by the descent or a stairway toautomatically release the next lower stairway.

Fifth, to provide improved means for retardinpgthe de'scent'ef thestairway, and sixth, to provide improved stairway-raising ure 3.

means adapted to give an audible signal when the stairway is descending,for the purpose of warning persons below the stairway.

To these and other related ends the invention consists in theimprovements which i will now proceed to describe and claim.

Of the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification,

Figure l is a side elevation of a portion of a building equipped with afire escape embodying the invention, two balconies being shown, thestairway oi. one balcony being fully lowered, and the stairway of theother balcony partly lowered.

Figure 2 is a perspective view including one balcony and the stairwayhinged thereto.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary perspective view, illustrating the means forreleasably supporting; a stairway in its raised position, and forretracting; the supporting); means to release the airway.

Figure 3 is a section on the plane indicat ed by the line 33 of l igrure2, and an elevation of parts at the left of said line.

Figure is a section on line 4t-+iof Fig- Figure F1 sure 4:.

Figures 6 and 7 is an enlargement of a portion 0'! aresomewhatconventional top plan views, including a balcony and a stairwayhinged thereto, various details shown by Figure 2, being omitted.

Figure 8 is a top plan view of a. balcony and a hinged stairway, thebody of the gate and certain other parts being; omitted.

Figure 9 is a fragmentary elevation lool-zing' toward the inner side oneof the end guard oi the balcony, and showing; the

gate opened.

.ifi igure 10 is a 'l'ragmentary elevation showing portions of thebalcony, thestairway. and a modification of the retardingmeans shown byFigures 1, 2 and 3.

Figure 11 is a section on line 11-11 of Figure 1. i V

Figure 12 is a view similar to Figure ll, showing a modification.

Figures 13 and fi l are views similar to I Figure 10. showing othermodifications of the retarding means. I

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all of thefigures. My invention is preferably embodied in balcony which is one ofa vertical-"series or tier attached to the side of. building, and

has a horizontal floor in which is formeda relatively large opening15,constituting a passageway through the floor. I prefer to subdividethe floor into three landings, all on the same level, and including anelongated landing 16 adjoining the building and extending the entirelength of the balcony, a relatively short landing 17 at one end of theopening 15, and a longer landing 18 at the opposite end of said opening.These landings may be grids, composed of metal bars, or they may be ofany other suitable construction. 8

To suitable fixed parts of the balcony 1 connect by hinge or pivotmembers 19 a stairway, which may consist of longitudinal. side membersor stringers 20 and treads 20, the hinge members being at the end of theopening adjacent to the platform 17.

I call the elongated landing l6'the reception landing, because personsusing the fire escape step from the building first upon this landing.The landing 17 is at the head of the stairway, and is called, therefore,the stair-head landing, from which persons pass to the stairway. Thelanding 18 is at the foot of a stairway lowered from the balcony nextabove, and is called, therefore, the stairfoot landing, personsdescending the, lastmentioned stairway passing onto the. land The lengthof the stairway is such that when the stairway'is raised, a considerableportion of it projects under the landing 18. The reception landingextends from the sta1r-toot landing to the stair-head landing.

To provide for the safety oi the users, I provide the stairway withrigid upstanding hand rails 22, which are fixed preferably to thestringers 20, and extend the entire length of the stairway. (To avoidconfusion. I show the hand rails by dotted lines in Figure 2) Theportion of the balcony which includes the landing 18, is provided withnarrow elongated longitudinal slots 23, shown somewhat conventionally byFigures 6 and 7, these slots communicating with the opening 15, andbeing preferably formed between the longitudinal edges of the landing 18and the longitudinal bars or chords 24: forming parts of the balconystructure.

, (See Figures 2 and 3).

When the stairway is raised, considerable portions of the hand railsenter the slots 23 and project above the landing 18;

' It will be seen that the slots 23 permit the employment of rigidhandrails on the stairway, and at the same time permit the em ploymentof a stair-foot landing 18, of suitable length and capacity.

. One of said hand rails serves, as herein after described, as a barrierbetween the reception landing 16 and the stair-foot landing 18, when thestairway is raised. The balcony, which is provided with the sual outsideguard rails 25, and end guard rails 26, is provided with a relativelyshort guard rail or fixed barrier 27, at the outer edge of the receptionlanding 16. The ends of said barrier are separated from the end guardrails 26, by transverse passageways 28 and 29 (Figure 2). The passageway28 connects one end of the reception landing 16 with the stair-headlanding 17, and the passageway 29 connects the opposite end 01"- thereception landing with the stair-foot landing 18. v

A swinging gate 80 (see Figure 2),hinged at 31, to the balcony, controlsaccess to the head landing 17, and constitutes an element of means forreleasing the swinging end of opened, said connections extending hori-vzontally along the reception landing 16. Figures 2, 8 and 9 show asuitable embodiment of connections for this purpose, said connectionsincluding a horizontal twoarmed lever 33 fulcrumed at 34: on the balcony, one arm of said lever being connected, as by a pin 35, with thedetent, an elongated rod 36, one end of which is pivoted at 37 to theother arm of said lever, an upright rock-shaft 38 forming a part of thegate and coaxial therewith, an arm 39 attached to said rockshaft, and alink 40, one end of which is pivoted at 41 to the arm 39, the other endof said link having a slot 4-2 which receives a pin 43 on'the rod 36.-The gate 30 normally obstructs the passage 28, so that a person passingfrom the landing 16 to the landing 17, must open the gate. This movementof the gate causes the retraction of the detent 82 through the describedconnections so that the stairway is released and swings downward to aposition permitting a person on the landing 17 to descend by thestairway through the opening 15 in the balcony floor, to the balconynext below, or to the ground, if the balcony is the lower one of theseries. The location of the detent 32 at the swinging end of thestairway enables the detent to be freely withdrawn from its supportingposition by the opening of the gate, the downward pressure of thestairway on the detent being much less than would be the case if thedetent were located relatively near the axis of the stairway.

Until the stairway is released and low cred, the stairway hand rails 22project through the slots 28 and above the balcony floor. The inner handrail extends across a considerable portion of the passageway 29, asindicated by'Figure 2, and therefore acts as a barrier to prevent aperson on the reception landing from passing therefrom onto the landing18. In other words, the in-v 30 that when in the normal positionoccupied when the detent 32 is operative, the gate is somewhat ajar, orpartly open, as

indicated by Figure 2 The person, there-,

fore, naturally walks toward the passageway 28, and in passing throughthe latter, fully opens the gate and causes the retraction of thedetent, the gate when in its normal position, serving as a directionindicator.

To enable the detent 32 on any balcony to be retracted by the descent ofthe stairway hinged to the balcony next above, I provide an uprighttwo-armed operating lever 46 which is fulcrumed at 47 to a fixed supporton the balcony, and has a curved upwardly projecting upper arm normallystanding in the path of a stairway swinging downward from an upperbalcony, and a shorter downwardly projecting lower arm connected withthe detent 32, the arrangement being such that when the upper arm of theoperating lever 46 is struck by a pin 46 on a descending stairway, thelever is moved from the full line to the dotted line position shown byFigure 1, and is thus caused to retract the detent and release theraised stairway on the balcony below the descending stairway.

As here shown, the shorter arm of the operating lever 46 is connectedwith the detent 32 by a rod 48 pivoted at 50 to said shorter arm, and ahorizontal two-armed lever 49 similar to the lever 33, and fulcrumed at52 to the balcony, one arm of the lever 49 being'pivoted at 51 to therod 48, and the other arm connected with the detent by the pin 35.

The operating lever 46 is relatively near the detent 32, and may bemanually moved to project the detent into stairway-confining position.

The stairway may be raised to its con-- cealed horizontal position bymeans of a drum 56, journaled in fixed supports on the balcony and abovethe balcony floor. and a cable 57, attached atone end to the drum, andatthe other end to the swinging-end portion of the stairway. The drum maybe manually rotated by means of a key or crank, engaged with a squaredtrunnion 58 attached to'the drum. The cable may pass to the drum over aloose sheave 59, as shown at the upper portion of Figure 1, or directlyto the drum, as shown at the lower portion of said figure.

To enable the drum to serve as a member of an alarm, adapted to give anaudible signal when the stairway is descending, and thus warn personsunder the stairway, I provide an alarm which is preferably a rattle,including an annular flange 60 (Figure 11) on the drum, having atoothedor corrugated periphery, and a resilient member 61, attached at 62 to afixed support, which may be the housing of the drum and attached tocooperate with the flange 60 in producing a rapid succession of clickingsounds, the flange 60 being provided with teeth or corrugations 63, asshown at the upper portion of Figure 11. preferably includes two members60, and two members 61. The connection of the cable 57 to the swingingend of the stairway ensures a protracted rotation of the drum, and aprotracted alarm when the stairway is descending.

If desired, two cables 57 may be employed, as indicated by Figure 12,the portions of the cables coiled on the drum being separated by aflange 64 on the drum.

Figure 12 shows the drum provided with a flange 65, the perimeter ofwhich is pro vided with teeth engaging the teeth of a small gear orpinion 66 attached to a shaft 67, journaled in the drum housing, andprovided with a squared end 58, to engage an operating, key.

To retard the downward movement of the stairway, I provide retardingmeans, including as elements a cylinder 68 (Figure 4), a piston 69therein, a rod 7 0 attached to the piston, and a charge of liquid 71 inthe cylinder, said charge being slowly transferable from side to side ofthe piston. The cylinder, piston, and piston-rod constitute a telescopic structure, one end of which is pivotally connected to thestairway, and the other to a fixed part of the balcony, said structurebeing elongated by a downward movement of the stairway and the liquidcharge being operative; during such elongation to retard the downwardmovement.

In the embodiment of the invention shown by the upper portion of Figure1, the lower end of the cylinder 68 is pivoted at 72 to a bracket or ear73 attached to the stairway and projecting above the hand. railsthereof, the piston-rod being pivoted at 74 to. a

The alarm fixed support, such as a crossbar 75 on the I balcony. Asshown at the lower portion of Figurel, and by Figures 2 and 3, thepiston is pivoted at 75 to the base portion at the stairway, thepiston-rod 7 0 being pivoted at 74, as above described.

In the embodiment of the invention shown by Figure 10, the cylinder .68is pivoted at 77 to a fixed'support on the balcony, and the attached to,and movable with, the stairway In the embodiment of the invention shownby Figure 13, the cylinder 68 1s ointed at 80 to a fixed support on thebalcony to swing n 'ttCl emootimen' ie in en i 1 so I c l l l t ttl vton,ti

cylinder and pistonrod are permitted to swing freely to conform to m'vements of the stairway. As shown by Figure 4, the piston is hollow andhas a chamber 85, the portions of the piston forming ends of saidchamber being provided with relatively small oritices -56, permitting aslow moveme it of liquid charge 71 through the piston One end of thepiston is provided with a relatively large orifice 87, having acheck-valve 88 adapted to be opened by liquid pressure, to permit theliquid to pass rapidly through the orifice S7 in one direction, and tobe closed to prevent the passage otliquid in the opposite direction..Vhen the stairwa' 'r is in its raised position, the piston at one endof the cylinder, as indicated by Figure 4:. downward movement of thestairway causes a relative movement of the cylinder and piston, and aretarded. movement of the liquid through the passages 86, so that thedownward movement is suitably retarded. lVhen the s airway is rising,the valve 88 opens and permits a rapid passage of liquid in the opposncdirection, so that the upward move ment of the stairway is practicallyunopposed, the liquid passing through relatively large orifices 87 fromthe chamber 85.

At one end of the cylinder 68 is an outer head 91 and an inner head 91,said heads being spaced apart and forming a chamber The inner head isprovided. with small ori fices ln case the charge of liquid is reducedby evaporation, or otherwise, so that it does not entirely fill. thecylinder t6 the head 91, the chamber 92 receives liquid slowlythroughthe orifices at the commencement of the downward movement of thestairway,

so that a quick, downward starting move-.

charge is practically incompressible, so that it does not act likecompressed air, as an elastic cushion, but causes the stairway todescend at a slow and unchanging rate, without fluctuations.

A suitable stop such as a flexible tether 90,

may be employed to prevent the gate from swinging to position to fullyclose the pashold on which persons passing through thepassagewayEZS-inay step.

The object of the slot 42 in the link d0, is

to permit the displacement of the operating or releasing lever d6 by adescending stairway and the retraction of the detent 32 thereby, withoutstrain on or injury to the conections between the detent 32 and the gate30, said slot permitting movement of the rod 36 in the direction of thearrow :12 (Figure 2") without moving the gate, when the lever 46 ismoved by a descending stairway in the direction of the arrow y.

It will nowbe seen that the opening of a gate on any balcony, causes therelease of the stairway on that balcony and of the stairways on thelower balconies, the stairways after the first being successively andautomatically released.

I claim:

1. A fire escape comprising a balcony having a relatively largeopening'constituting a passageway through the balcony floor, said floorincluding a stair-foot landing located at one end of said opening andprovded with spaced apart narrow elongated slots, and a stairway hingedto the balcony at one end of said opening, and provided with fixedupstanding hand rails, adapted to enter said slots when the stairway israised, the stairway being elongated so that, when raised, one endportion projects under said landing, portions of its hand railsprojecting through said slots.

2. A fire escape comprising a balcony having a relatively large openingconstituting a passageway through the balcony floor, said tloorincluding a stair-toot landing located at one end of said opening,provided with spaced. apart narrow longitudinal slots, a stair-headlanding at the opposite end of said opening, and a reception landingforming the inner portion of the floor, the balcony being provided witha longitudinal barrier at the outer edge of the reception landing, andwith transverse passages at opposite ends of said barrier, connectingthe reception landing with said foot and head landings, and a stairwayhinged to the balcony at one end of said opening, and pro vided withfixed upstanding hand rails adap ted to enter said slots when thestairway is raised, one of said rails obstructing the transversepassagecommunicating with the stairtoot landing.

3. A. fire escape comprising a balcony hav ing an opening constitutingapassageway through the balcony floor, said floor including a stair-headlanding, at one end of said opening, a stair-foot landing at theopposite end of the opening, and a reception landing forming the innerport-ion of the fioor and extending from the stair-head landing to thestair-foot landing, a contracted passageway being provided between thereception landing and the stair-head landing, a stairway hinged at oneend to the stairhead landing, and adapted to swing downward by its ownweight, a movable detent on the stair-foot landing adapted to engage theswinging end of the stairway and support the same against downwardmovement, a swinging gate controlling access to the stair-head landing,and connections between the and detent, operative by the opening of thegate to retract the detent and release the stairway, the detent beingenabled, by its location at the swinging end of the stairway, to be"freely withdrawn from its supporting position by the opening of thegate.

l. A fire escape substantially as specified by claim 3, the gateconnections and detent being relatively arranged so that the gate isheld partly open when the detent is engaged with the stairway, so thatthe gate serves as a direction indicator.

5. A fire escape comprising a balcony having an opening constituting apassageway through the balcony floor, said floor including a stair-headlanding, at one end of said opening, a stair-foot landing at theopposite end of the opening, and a reception landing forming the innerportion of the floor and extending from the stair-head landing to thestair-foot landing, a stairway hinged at one end to the stair-headlanding, and adapted to swing downward by its own weight, a movabledetent on the stair-foot landing adapted to engage the swinging end ofthe stairway and support the same against downward movement, a swinginggate controlling access tothe stair-head landing, connections betweenthe gate and detent extending horizontally along the reception landingand operative by the opening of the gate to retract the detent andrelease the stairway, an upright two-armed lever fulcrumed on thebalcony and having an upwardly projecting longer arm normally located inthe path of a stairway swinging from a higher balcony, and a downwardlyprojecting shorter arm, said lever being displaceable by thelast-mentioned stairway, and connections between said shorter arm andthe detent adapted to retract the detent when the lever is displacedfrom its normal position.

6. A fire escape substantially as specified by claim 5, the saidconnections between the detent and the gate including a slot in onemember of the connections and a pin in another member, movable in theslot, to permit the retraction of the detent by the said two-armed leverwithout movement of the gate.

7. A fire escape comprising a balcony having an opening constituting apassageway through the balcony floor, said floor including a stair-headlanding, at one end of said opening, a stair-toot landing at theopposite end of the opening, and a reception landing forming the innerportion of the floor and extending from the stair-head landing to thestair-toot landing, a stairway hinged at one end to the stairheadlanding, and adapted to swing downward by its own weight, a movabledetent on the stair-toot landing adapted to engage the swinging end ofthe stairway and support the same against downward movement, a swinginggate controlling access to the stair-head landing, said gate having ashaft which is rocked by swinging movements of the gate, an arm fixed tosaid shaft, an upright two-armed lever fulcrumed on the balcony andhaving an upwardly projecting longer arm normally located in the path ofa stairway swinging from a higher balcony, and a downwardly projectingshorter arm, a pair of two-armed horizontal levers fulcrumed on thebalcony adjacent to the detent, said levers having shorter inner armsand longer outer arms, the inner arm of each lever being connected withthe detent, a rod connecting the outer arm of one of said horizontallevers with the shorter arm of said upright lever, to impart movementfrom the latter to the detent, and connections between the outer arm ofthe other horizontal lever and the gate rockshai't arm, to impartmovement from the gate to the detent, said connections including anelongated rod extending along the reception landing, and a linkconnecting said rod with the roclrshaft arm, a slot and pin connectionbeing provided between said rod and link whereby movement of the detentby said upright lever is permitted without movement of the gate.

8. In a fire escape in combination, a balcony having an openingconstituting a passageway through the balcony floor, a stairway hingedat one end to the balcony at one end of said opening, and adapted toswing downward by its own weight, confining means adapted to releasablyengage and support the swinging end portion of the stairway, when thelatter is raised, and means for retarding a downward movement of thestairway, said means including as elements a cylinder, a piston therein,a piston-rod, and a charge of liquid in said cylinder, transferable fromside to side of the piston, said cylinder, piston and rod constituting atelescopic device connected at one end to a fixed part of the stairwaystructure, and at the other end to a fixed part of the balconystructure, and adapted to be elongated by a downward movement of thestairway, said device and the charge of liquid being operative to retardthe said downward movement.

9. A fire escape comprising a balcony, the floor of. which includes astair-head landing, an elongated stair-foot landing, said landingsforming opposite ends of a passageway through said floor, the stair-"loot landing being narrower than the stair-, head landing and spacedfrom adjacent portions of the balcony structure by narrowhand-rail-receiving openings communicating with said passageway, and astair-way hinged to the balcony at the end of said passageway formed bythe stair-head land ing, and provided with fixed upstanding hand-rails,the stairway projecting under the stair-foot landing, and its hand-railsbe ing arranged'to project into said hand-railreceiving openings whenthe stairway is raised.

.10. In a fire escape, in combination, a plurality of balconies,eaclrhaving a passageway in its floor; plurality of stairways hinged insaid passageways, and adapted to swing downward by their own weight,each balcon and the. accomaan in stairwa serving'one floor of abuildingdetents on the balconies for releasably securing the stairways thereofin raised positions, each balcony being provided with means for nextbalcony above; the arrangement being such that when a person reaches thestairhead of any balcony above the lowest, the stairways of that and thesucceeding lower balconies are successively and automatically released.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

CHARLES F. MORRILL.

